Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who officially entered the race for mayor of New York City last month, has named Indian American Sasha Neha Ahuja has co-manager of his campaign.
Yang has joined a crowded Democratic primary field in his bid for NYC mayor that includes longtime elected officials and veterans of the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is barred by the city charter from seeking a third term, reported the Associated Press.
Ahuja, said a report in the New York Times, may be able to help Yang connect with progressives skeptical of his campaign. Yet a review of her activity on Twitter, the report said, suggests that on multiple issues, involving politics and personnel, her instincts have been at odds with the leading candidate she is now assisting.
In 2019, a story about gender discrimination centering on a presidential candidate was making the rounds, and Ahuja, a New York City progressive activist, found it to be credible, the report noted. That candidate was Yang, and Kimberly Watkins, one of his former employees at the test-prep company he once ran, had publicly accused him of firing her after she got married, allegedly because he thought she would not want to work as hard.
“Wish I could say it was unbelievable,” Ahuja wrote on Twitter, sharing an article from HuffPost about Watkins’ allegations, which Yang has long denied.
Ahuja’s elevation to run Yang’s campaign along with Chris Coffey, was the result of an apparent leadership shake-up within the campaign in the weeks leading up to Yang’s entry into the race, noted the Times.
“It is also important to make sure all sides are heard and promote a workplace culture that is inclusive and committed to equity,” said Ahuja, who is the current chair of New York City’s Equal Employment Practices Commission. “That’s why when I had the chance to work for Andrew and build that type of culture on a mayoral campaign, I jumped at the chance and am so excited to be here.”
Ahuja, who has a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University, and a B.A. in social policy/race relations from Hunter College, is also adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at Touro College and in the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, according to her LinkedIn bio.
